The Angels have expressed interest in Jose Mijares of the Royals and Marc Rzepczynski of the Cardinals in their search for a left-handed reliever, Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times reports (Twitter links). The Angels could also have some interest in Joe Thatcher of the Padres, DiGiovanna suggests.
Mijares, 27, has a 1.72 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 36 2/3 innings with the Royals so far in 2012. The midseason trade candidate earns $925K this year and will be arbitration eligible following the season.
Rzepczynski was traded to the Cardinals last summer in the deal that sent Edwin Jackson to St. Louis. The 26-year-old has a 5.06 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 32 innings this year. He'll be arbitration eligible for the first time following the 2012 season.
The Angels, who currently have left-handers Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi pitching out of the bullpen, are willing to offer Peter Bourjos in a trade for the right reliever. Here's MLBTR's preview of the trade market for left-handed relief.
Mijares & Francoeur for Bourjos and a PTBNL. Make it happen.
What would the Angels do with Francoeur?
Pay him to keep Wells company on the bench.
Angels need to trade Bourjos but not for a reliever. They need to package him with Ervin or Richards and go after Greinke or Hamels.
The Angels already have too many outfielders, they don’t need Francoeur. And hopefully they don’t trade Bourjos for relief help (or at all).
Don’t get me wrong, Mijares is a very good reliever, but he’s not worth 5 more years of Peter Bourjos. Franceour would literally be about 8th or 9th on the Angels depth chart for OF. If the Royals want Bourjos they’d have to add an awfully nice prospect on top of Mijares to get him.
That’s insane. Bourjos is half the outfielder Frenchie is, regardless of his speed, and is hitting about 20 points lower than Frenchie. If we trade Frenchie, Meyers is coming up anyway, so why trade Mijares for what would amount to a bench player or minor leaguer??? We aren’t even paying Mijares a million this year…
If you truly believe that Bourjos is “half the outfielder Frenchie is,” in a defensive capacity, then you sir, know nothing about outfield defense. Bourjos has been bad at the plate this year, but he may be the best CF in the game defensively. He has great speed and range, he has great instincts, and he has a strong and accurate arm.
You don’t have to worry, he is not going to the Royals for a reliever and/or Frenchie (thank God), but you are way off on Bourjos defensively.
I’ll trade you Mike Gonzalez for Bourjos and song.
Funny. The Cardinals are not going to be sellers.
you sold rasmus last year. trading one non core piece doesn’t make you a seller
Read what I said above. The Cardinals will not deal a player of the major league roster unless they get one back. I seriously doubt the Angels would deal Bourjos for Zep. So it isn’t going to happen.
so you’re telling me that since you don’t think the Angels would make that deal it means it isn’t going to happen? that sir is impressive
That would probably qualify me as an insider by today’s standards.
I think the point is that the Cardinals aren’t going to sell unless they can get someone who might aid in the pennant race by upgrading a position. Bourjos at this point doesn’t even upgrade the bench (although he has a nice glove).
No way the Cardinals trade Rzep. They are looking to add pieces at the deadline, not sell
Agreed! We are trying to improve our pitching not our offense! But who knows we would probably do it anyways.
Hopefully not. They don’t need Bourjos. Maybe for someone else though, like Trout…kidding
Choate plus a mid – low level spect for bourjos
If the Angels trade Borjous for any of these non-elite relievers people will be pissed. Also this is good news as it means we are about to cut Takahashi.
cards dont need another light hitting speedy OF
They don’t have anywhere to put him to begin with.
willing to offer Peter Bourjos in a trade for the right reliever.
sounds like a terrible idea.
I absolutely agree. I trust in DiPoto though, he’s done well thus far imo. I doubt he trades Bourjos for a reliever though, despite the rumors saying it might happen.
please trade thatcher for bourjos. then we can finally get rid of ‘venable
LOL…not a chance. The Royals have to many outfielders already…which is why they are are looking to trade Francoeur (so they can call up Myers).
Also…looking at Bourjos stats…I really don’t see what the Royals would want with him. His career stats aren’t anything to write home about so far…in fact, i’d call them rather bad. He’s had one semi-decent year out of 3 so far…Not exactly a ringing endorsement….
I would not be shocked if you worked for the Royals front office. This type of narrow sighted tunnel vision is why the Royals are awful every year even with a trillion top picks.
Defense is played in baseball games, fyi.
Someone failed to check up on the Royals OF defensive stats.. Cain/Dyson can run them down with the best of them in Center…And Gordon and Francoeur are far from defensive liabilities. KC already has more outfield assists than any other team in the Majors. (And they had a ton last year I might add).
Exactly how is trading for a no hit, slick fielding outfielder an upgrade?
Francouer is an abomination. His arm doesn’t come close to making up for his historically awful range. He’s one of the worst five hitters in the entire major leagues.
Dyson is not a good defender either despite his speed. Plus he’s horrible at the plate. He is a better overall player than Francouer though, I’ll give you that.
The whole idea here is acquiring Bourjos for a RELIEF pitcher. They would be silly to lay off the trigger if that’s really the asking price.
KCRoyals is correct. Also, I’m guessing the nay-sayers haven’t looked at our minors, where we have plenty of OF’s as well. Gordon is a gold glove left fielder who hits considerably better than Borjous, Cain is just showing what he can do, and even at .250, Frenchie is a better hitter with a superior arm to Borjous. That doesn’t even make mention of the phenom that Will Meyers is in Omaha. Trade makes ZERO sense for KC…
If you can defend Francouer offensively or defensively then you haven’t been watching.
Been watching faithfully since 1975…
I don’t necessarily disagree, but as a Royals fan I’d trade Mijares for Bourjos everday. The Royals have outfielders, sure. Many of them suck though. I think Bourjos is better than Francouer, Dyson, and Bourgeois and I’d say the jury is still out on Cain. The Royals have TONS of bullpen pieces. Mijares for any ML ready position player with upside is a slam dunk.
All of that said, there’s no way the Angels part with Bourjos for Mijares. Probably not for Broxton either.
With a player evaluation like this, I understand why the Royals are, ahem, the Royals.
The Cardinals can’t trade Rzepczynski! I just got a Rzepczynski jersey for fathers day! (I’m not kidding)
I think that makes you, me, and Rzepczynski the only three people in the known world that actually own a Scrabble Cards’ jersey then.
Sounds like the start of some vowel-impaired fan club!
Out of all the Cardinals you got Rzepczkski’s jersey, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that your collecting and already have all the others.
This will sound weird, but it’s the only jersey I have. I loved the idea of having something different than all of the Holliday, Freese, and Wainwright jerseys, though I was hoping it would be relevant for at least a season.
Hope they didn’t charge you by the letter.
When I buy a jersey, I look for players likely to be around for the long run. I got Holliday after he re-signed and my latest is Molina. Of course, you can always go the retro route: mine are Stan, Gibby and Ozzie.
What happened to Bourjos this season? Did the league finally figure him out or just an off year?
He has a mild hip injury that is affecting his swing. He will have repaired in the off season. The guy can hit and I’d hate to see us trade him for a scrub reliever. He is a fan favorite so I think we’re hearing disinformation. We need a starter.
I don’t know how crazy the Angels are thinking about getting, but if they’re dangling Bourjos for a lefty reliever I wonder if James Russell would have any interest for them.
Why in the world would KC want another centerfielder with Cain and Dyson on the team (and our own Bourjos in Omaha on top of that)? Makes no sense to me…
i would assume that if the Royals were to trade Mijares to the Angels, Bourjos wouldn’t be the return…probably Minor League pitching (AKA…nothing special).
I would not even consider it unless we got both of them and maybe not even then.
I wouldnt go as far as saying that Bourjos is much better than Jay. While Bourjos plays great defense and has wheels, he doesn’t hit for average nearly as good as Jay. I’d be fine with Gast getting the call as a loggy though
I don’t see them dealing a bullpen arm unless they got a pretty good player back. And I don’t see the Angels parting with Bourjos for Zep, so I really doubt a deal like this is going to happen. If a deal happens it will probably be using prospects.
if we got bourjos i would love mo forever
Bourjos is a better defender and base stealer, but there is no evidence that he is (and plenty of evidence that he isn’t) a better hitter. Bourjos would be a good acquisition to platoon with Jay, though.
I hope you’re joking if you would want to trade a Loogy that we would use for a backup catcher that probably isn’t better than what we have. Good teams don’t trade for backup catchers…
I think the Cards are sitting just fine with Cruz as our backup. He’s not great, but hey…that’s why he’s the backup. He’s serviceable behind the plate, and he’s always good for random gapshots in some intense situations. Can’t ask for much more.
So what if Cruz is mediocre at best. He play maybe 1 or 2 times every couple weeks. Rzep, if he figures it out can be really huge for St. Louis later this yr and trading him for a backup catcher would be extremely stupid.
Name when a team traded a player off their mlb roster for a back up catcher mid season. I can’t think of one, unless someone traded for a young player that would eventually become a starter.
Jeff Mathis had a .497 OPS in 2010 and a .484 in 2011. You don’t trade a reliever that will be used for a back up catcher especially when you have Molina as your starter. What I said makes complete sense.
Yeah because what players do in the minors has a huge effect on what happens in the minors….right now Jay is the better player than Bourjos that much has been PROVEN on the field of play.
No I probably wouldn’t because the difference in Mathis and Cruz production is negligible.
I agree completely. Jay has earned his spot, in my opinion. No need to trade away a guy in Scrabble that has a lot of potential. The proposed idea of sending Descalso with him would be a big shot to the Cards, too, just in the sense that he can give a lot of guys some much needed rest. That’s where all of his value lies anyways.
Oddly enough, he isn’t that good of a base stealer…but still don’t want the Angels to part with him. I don’t want Trout beating himself up in CF more than he has to.
If Cardinals trade Scrabble for Bourjos, I’d send Mo to a psychiatrist for analysis. Rzep isn’t pitching well, but Bourjos offers no upgrade — and can’t understand by what metric anybody considers him superior to Jay.
Its more of a favorite player thing